Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space

5. The Destroyer and the Peacemakers, 1984–1990

5 The Destroyer and the Peacemakers, 1984–1990 “God is giving me a new name and a new job,” declared former Kirtland Temple guide Jeffrey Lundgren to a group of gathered Kirtland followers in 1987. “I am now to be called ‘the Destroyer.’ People will die at my hands.”1 Lundgren did not speak in hyperbole. Just as the Kirtland Temple began to be positively reincorporated into LDS sacred space by 1984, the RLDS community was rocked by a church schism.The division complicated the church’s relationship to the temple as a singular sacred space. Tragically, the ensuing contestation was not simply verbal in its dimensions but physical, too. Lundgren’s tiny breakaway sect marked the Kirtland Temple as a place for apocalyptic redemption.Fulfilling the meaning of his “new name,”Lundgren himself would become a mass murderer. In a contrapuntal distinction from Lundgren’s violence, the RLDS church’s leadership, following a trajectory set for themselves since the 1960s, would attempt to reinvent their church as a peace and justice church in the 1980s. All the while, a discursive civil war raged between liberals and conservatives in the denomination. It was a crisis unlike any other that the church had faced in its history. This chapter explores the 1980s RLDS schism by the ways individuals mapped the Kirtland Temple within their sacred universes. Such mapping involved revelations about temples, conferences at or near the building, the construction of worship spaces near the temple, the creation of eschatological maps about the temple and its role in the end of history, and the creation of collective memories through commemorative rituals. In this, RLDS members followed practices that had helped establish their church’s collective identity in previous decades. What was different, of course, was the RLDS church schism that allowed for an opening to extreme, even 5. The Destroyer and the Peacemakers 97 violent, mappings of the Kirtland Temple. And violent maps facilitated violent acts. While narrating the history of other RLDS factions, this chapter mainly recounts the history of Jeffrey Lundgren, his apocalyptic group, and their map of Kirtland.This chapter takes a step back and places Lundgren’s violent mapping and actions within several theoretical contexts that seek to explain violence, religion, and ritual—in particular, with a reflection on how mimetic desires may create contested spaces and spark violent solutions to fulfill those desires. Firstly, though, I explore the denominational fight that will eventually spill over into physical violence in Kirtland. The RLDS Schism in 1984 and the Revelation for a New Temple At the biennial RLDS World Conference in April 1984, RLDS Prophet Wallace B. Smith, the great-grandson of Joseph Smith Jr., announced that he had received a revelation that the conference needed to consider for approval . Unlike their LDS cousins who rarely added sections of scripture to their canonical works, RLDS prophets frequently presented new revelations that were debated and approved at church conferences. Although conference delegates approved many of these sections with little controversy (most of which dealt with purely administrative matters, such as calling new apostles, and encouraging but noncontroversial spiritual affirmations), the 1984 document would create schism within the movement. Smith’s document, too, would have long-reaching effects on the Kirtland Temple and its relationship to the Community of Christ. To the dismay of stalwart conservatives, Smith revealed that women would now be called to serve in the priesthood. Conservatives as early as 1980 had predicted he would do so.2 Now, their worst fears had been realized. Furthermore, Smith’s revelation called for construction to begin on the long-awaited temple in Independence,Missouri, first proposed by his great-grandfather in 1831.This temple, Smith revealed, would be dedicated to “the pursuit of peace” and the healing and reconciliation of nations and peoples.Thus, for the first time, RLDS members would have two temples. Kirtland’s status as the singular structure “built by the command of God” was transformed. How the two temples would relate to one another was unclear. As the 150th anniversary of the Kirtland Temple’s dedication neared, the RLDS community began openly dividing into liberal and conservative factions. Conservatives, self-styled as “RLDS fundamentalists” or “Restorationists ,” quickly condemned the proposal for the temple. They pointed to the new temple’s proposed location, a parking lot owned by the RLDS church 98 part 2. proximity adjacent to the traditional site for the temple in...